His new home has radiant floor heating so the linoleum-tiled flooring in the spacious kitchen and the tile in the three and a half bathrooms feel toasty on his bare feet when he gets up in the morning.

"I hate the cold," he said Friday, explaining that cryophobia is a persistent fear of the cold.

The thermostat-controlled heating element beneath the house's floors is just one of numerous environmental features installed in the 56-year-old's remarkable 4,000 square-feet home situated in this middle class neighborhood near the green Puente Hills and the 60 Freeway.

Other features include:

" All steel framing. No wood was used in the building of the home he calls Steel Memories.

" Stucco exterior walls that are 10 inches thick and filled with two kinds of insulation. "The walls are thicker than most people's ceiling," he said.

" A roof containing sun-reflecting crystals that redirect sunlight and keep the house cooler.

" Attic fans running on separate solar arrays affixed to the roof.

" A 7-kilowatt solar panel system on the south-facing garage roof that provides enough energy to heat, cool and light the house and the separate, 2,000-square-foot garage.

" 200 gallons of rain barrels that capture runoff from roof gutters.

" Absolutely no lawn. Instead, all native, drought-tolerant plants landscape the front and side yards.

Crabtree learned about sustainable design along the way by reading books and articles, often educating the architect and contractor as well, he said. He also followed a Los Angeles County green building code which requires rain barrels and specially designed compact fluorescent lighting for energy saving.

"I read all the books. I read all the information. And I read just about everything," said Crabtree, who is a registered nurse with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He instructs paramedics and EMTs about how to treat bomb victims and often lays out a disaster response plan for nurses and staff.

Before his wife, Rita Delehanty, developed full-on Alzheimer's and needed 24-hour care, he used to tinker with his old cars in the garage. Now, that hobby has been pushed aside because he must be there for his wife. When he's working, he arranges her care from an agency.

The house, named Steel Memories, is a play on the type of construction and his wife's condition, he said.

Crabtree described the large house designed by architect David Pickard of Whittier as an example of practical environmentalism.

He saw a "green" house on the Westside of Los Angeles that cost $10.5 million and scoffed. He was determined to design the home on Poplar Avenue with environmental features that would not bust his bank account.

"This is green building on a budget," he announced with flair. The house cost him about $530,000, he said and that included bulldozing the old house and building the new one. There is no load bearing walls so a future owner can easily add a wall or add a room.

Handicapped bathroom on the first floor, wide door frames and a wheelchair ramp in the front are part of a necessary practicality that he calls "aging in place. "

Also, part of the sustainability factor is the furniture choices. All the home furnishings are recycled. They were pre-owned and purchased on the cheap, he said. The bill for the furniture: a mere $2,000.

Yet, like the radiant floor heating, some features could not be denied, such as his "Costco closet," an 8-foot by 10-foot pantry that's the size of a small room off the massive kitchen.

But the best feature is the affordability, he said.

He can heat the place in winter for a maximum of $125 a month.

And because of the solar panels, his electric bill runs him $300 - for the year. That's because he's making electricity during the day from the sun.

"It has all the stuff I wanted. Plus it is super energy efficient and sustainable. And I wanted it to be practical," Crabtree said.